The forgotten art of stewardship
By Chantelle Botha
2026 is the year of the middle manager. We’re entering a high-stakes game that will be won or lost in the battleground of hearts and minds. Gone are the negotiations across boardroom tables – success now depends on who you are and how you show up in an increasingly complex world.
If you’re responsible for making things happen, but you’re not the one setting the final direction or controlling all the resources, you’re middle management. Despite what your business card says. Organisations rely on the people who are creating the results that satisfy their stakeholders. That’s you.
This is the forgotten art of stewardship. You’ve been entrusted with something precious – not just outcomes, but people, and their potential. All depending on how you model engagement. The biblical parable of the talents wasn’t about money, it was about what you do with what you’ve been given. The servant who buried his talent out of fear got fired. But the ones who invested and multiplied their talents were celebrated for their willingness to act, not for the size of their results.
Middle managers are the stewards of organisational vitality. Asking for more resources or broader authority feels like it might be the solution in a deadline driven world, but it’s a trap. Stewardship asks what you can do with what’s in your hands right now?
The Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2025 Report reveals that managers influence 70% of employee engagement, yet their own engagement is falling. Automation and AI have expanded our efficiency, but productivity still lags behind declining employee engagement. The same study notes that only 21% of employees are engaged globally, making productivity a human sustainability issue rather than an operational one.
The future of work won’t be driven solely by technology, but by distinctly human skills. We pay lip service to these traits that are inherent within us, but we conveniently forget they’re ours to steward: creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, motivation, curiosity, courage and lifelong learning.
These “skills” are built out of self-awareness – they’re the foundation for effective leadership and the key driver of culture and engagement. While 95% of people believe they’re self-aware, only about 10% actually are (Psychology Today).
You can neither steward others nor your desired outcomes if you don’t know yourself. Self-awareness practices, whether 360 feedback, coaching, reflection, or mindfulness, aren’t just personal development. They’re stewardship tools. They reveal the blind spots that undermine trust, the patterns that bury potential, the gifts you’re not using.
This brings us back to the parable reminding us that stewardship has nothing to do with what you have and everything to do with what you do with it. Middle managers today face the same choice the servants did. Will you bury your influence out of frustration with limited resources? Or will you invest what you have – your attention, your curiosity, your willingness to be vulnerable – and watch it multiply?
When leaders commit to understanding first themselves and then their people, they unlock the engagement, trust and psychological safety that drive sustainable engagement and productivity.
This is stewardship in action. And 2026 will be won by the middle managers who refuse to bury their influence. The middle managers who lead with self-awareness, invest in their people, and multiply what they’ve been entrusted with.
Showing up and acting courageously with what you have, not what you wish you had, gets rewarded.
So what are you doing with what’s in your hands?
Chantelle Botha, known globally as The Catalyst, is an Identity Architect and founder of Phoenix. Author of Phoenix Rising and Connect, Lead, Succeed, she equips leaders to steward their influence with curiosity, courage, and confidence. Her straight-shooting style challenges middle managers to stop waiting for more and start acting with what they have.
Ready to ignite sustainable leadership?
Connect with Chantelle today.
WhatsApp: +27 83 476 4265
Email: chantelle@phoenixconfidence.com
Website: https://phoenixconfidence.com/
